MSN's Tough Butterfly;
Seven Big IM Dilemmas

In the online access battle, Microsoft Corp. is about one-quarter the size of America Online in terms of subscribers, yet for some very good reasons AOL looks increasingly like the underdog.

Microsoft has a knack for introducing mediocre products, using its market clout and deep pockets to make them kinda sorta viable, thus buying it time until it comes out with a legitimate contender. Remember the first version of Explorer, or even...